Dear families,

This week has proved to a be another busy week with new learning and settling into the routines of classrooms. All class teachers have sent all information handouts which give specific information about timetables, home reading, sports uniform days and invitations for Seesaw (our communication app). Please contact your child's teachers if you have any questions.

Sporting Schools Victoria Grant

We have again secured funding from Sporting Schools Victoria this term. We are very excited to advise that we will be heading into Hamilton for some expert coaching in Athletics at the Hamilton Little Athletics Centre at Mitchell Park. The sessions will made up of 4 activities for 30 minutes each.

High Jump
Long Jump
Throw Events - shotput/discuss
Track (hurdles/sprints)

The 4/5/6 session will be on Tuesday 28th of February and the F/1/2 will be Tuesday 14th of March from 1-3pm. We will require many parent helpers to maximise the participation of each student to help with setting up and the gathering of equipment. Students, parents and teachers will be bussed into Hamilton by Jon Herrmann. Please let Tammy or myself know if you are able to help.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews will be held towards the end of Term 1 and Term 3 this year. In Term 1, parent-teacher interviews will be on Tuesday 21st March, after school from 3.40pm onwards. The term three date will be set closer to the time.

These meetings will be an opportunity for parents/carers to meet individually with their child’s teacher who will share a progress report on your child’s learning (so far) this year. The Year 4, 5 and 6 students are encouraged to attend with their parents/carers.

Professional Learning and Student Free Days

2023 student free days will be held on Monday 24th April, Wednesday 31st May, Monday 28th August and Monday 27th November.

The focus for these days will be professional learning in assessment, well-being and curriculum. These dates were approved by the School Council at our meeting on Wednesday.

NAPLAN 2023

NAPLAN is the 'National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy' is a nation-wide, standardised test for children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 which covers writing, spelling, grammar, reading and numeracy skills. All students in Year 3 and 5 will complete NAPLAN online, with the exception of Year 3 writing which is completed on paper. For students, NAPLAN is just one aspect of assessment and reporting and is a "one moment of one day" snapshot of student learning.

NAPLAN tests are taking place earlier in the year between March 15-27.

School Council Elections

Currently we have three parent and two staff vacancies for our School Council. In accordance with the Department of Education guidelines, we will be conducting an election to fill these vacancies. If you are interested in nominating for School Council, nomination forms are available from the school office from Thursday 16th February to Thursday 23rd February. The nomination period will close at 4pm Thursday 23rd February. Should there be multiple nominations for each position, we will conduct a ballot. Information will be distributed in the event a ballot is required.

For further information, please speak to our School Council President, Simon Thomas or to myself.

The following link provides additional information for parents interested in nominating for School Council.

Lions Club Paper Truck

The Lions Club are loading another paper truck this Sunday 19th February. They require help from 10am at the old railway shed. The Lions Club are great supporters of our school, so if you can get there to help it would be much appreciated as they are expecting to be short in numbers for the loading.

Somers Camp

We have been advised that our school is eligible to send Year 5/6 students to Somers Camp later in Term 2. I have applied for our students to attend and now we are awaiting on our allocation of places by the District Secretary once all schools in the Portland/Hamilton area have expressed their interest. Dates are - 30/05/2023 to 07/06/2023 and the cost of the nine day camp is $260, which includes transport, accommodation and pocket money. Further information and an expression of interest from the students will follow as soon as I receive confirmation of our allocation. Please see the attached promotional flyer.

Have a lovely weekend.

Lisa Ferrier

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